Blast waves in a paraxial fluid of light

Abstract

We study experimentally blast wave dynamics on a weakly interacting fluid of light. The fluid density and velocity are measured in 1D and 2D geometries. Using a state equation arising from the analogy between optical propagation in the paraxial approximation and the hydrodynamic Euler's equation, we access the fluid hydrostatic and dynamic pressure. In the 2D configuration, we observe a negative differential hydrostatic pressure after the fast expansion of a localized over-density, which is a typical signature of a blast wave for compressible gases. Our experimental results are compared to the Friedlander waveform hydrodynamical model [1]. Velocity measurements are presented in 1D and 2D configurations and compared to the local speed of sound, to identify supersonic region of the fluid. Our findings show an unprecedented control over hydrodynamic quantities in a paraxial fluid of light.

Spin-orbit-coupled fluids of light in bulk nonlinear media

“…Consequently, small oscillating fluctuations of the beam intensity field on top of a fixed background are described by the standard Bogoliubov theory [18][19][20][21], as was recently confirmed experimentally [14,17]. Large perturbations on top of a small background on the other hand lead to the creation of dispersive shock waves [22][23][24][25]. Recently, this platform was also exploited to explore the generation of topological defects and the associated turbulence [26,27], as well as analogue cosmological Sakharov oscillations in the density-density correlations of a quantum fluid of light [28,29].…”

Dissipation-enhanced collapse singularity of a nonlocal fluid of light in a hot atomic vapor

“…An important aspect of our experimental work is to unveil a strong nonlocal regime for fluids of light propagating in hot atomic vapors. Contrary to previous studies on atomic vapors [55][56][57][58] where interactions were seen to be local, we tuned the atomic density up to 20 atoms per cubic wavelength (by changing the temperature of the gas) which leads to an observable signature of nonlocality. By comparing our experimental data to numerical simulations we give an estimate of the range of the nonlocal interactions in our system.…”